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Police destroying my home and property

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knoman

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My husband is on probabion. The Police did a probation search a few months ago, and they destroyed much of my home. There were 10 Officers who tore my home apart for 5 hours. They broke open computers, our dvd players, vcr's, and everything else electronic. I work on computers and I have dozens of spools of CD's. They dumped them all over the house and then walked on them for 5 hours while they were tearing everything up. They opened up my printer, turned it upside down and threw it on my bed. So all of the ink leaked out on my mattress, linen, paperwork, and clothes that they had dumped there as well. They opened up every single package of food from my kitchen cupboards and dumped the contents on the floor. They took every medicine bottle, vitamin, etc. and opened up all of the ones that were capsules and just dumped them all out. Anyway, they found some drug papaphenalia, but no drugs. The Senior Drug Task Force Officer said that whatever was damaged or broken by any of his team would be paid for. Just let him know. I photographed all of the damages that were done. And I filed a claim with some company that the city of Berkeley uses to handle their lawsuits for damages done by the Police. 6 weeks later I received a letter from the Acting City Attorney. It said "the city is immune from liability under Government Code section 821.6 for any property damage that occurred as a result of a search pursuant to a search warrant or probation search." If this is true, then when would the Police ever be responsible for the damage they do? And does it matter if anything illegal is found as to whether or not the Police are going to be held accountable for their actions? I've done some research online, and there's some controversy as to whether or not this code section even applies to my situation. Can you please clear it up for me? Thanks.
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My husband is on probabion. The Police did a probation search a few months ago, and they destroyed much of my home. There were 10 Officers who tore my home apart for 5 hours. They broke open computers, our dvd players, vcr's, and everything else electronic. I work on computers and I have dozens of spools of CD's. They dumped them all over the house and then walked on them for 5 hours while they were tearing everything up. They opened up my printer, turned it upside down and threw it on my bed. So all of the ink leaked out on my mattress, linen, paperwork, and clothes that they had dumped there as well. They opened up every single package of food from my kitchen cupboards and dumped the contents on the floor. They took every medicine bottle, vitamin, etc. and opened up all of the ones that were capsules and just dumped them all out. Anyway, they found some drug papaphenalia, but no drugs. The Senior Drug Task Force Officer said that whatever was damaged or broken by any of his team would be paid for. Just let him know. I photographed all of the damages that were done. And I filed a claim with some company that the city of Berkeley uses to handle their lawsuits for damages done by the Police. 6 weeks later I received a letter from the Acting City Attorney. It said "the city is immune from liability under Government Code section 821.6 for any property damage that occurred as a result of a search pursuant to a search warrant or probation search." If this is true, then when would the Police ever be responsible for the damage they do? And does it matter if anything illegal is found as to whether or not the Police are going to be held accountable for their actions? I've done some research online, and there's some controversy as to whether or not this code section even applies to my situation. Can you please clear it up for me? Thanks.
**A: did they have a search warrant?
 

knoman

Junior Member
I thought this was a serious legal forum. I've noticed that most of your answers to people's questions are sarcastic and condescending. For the few of you that actually try to assist people, you're being judged as a whole. Kick the idiots to the curb and find a forum that's run by adults.
 

The Occultist

Senior Member
I thought this was a serious legal forum. I've noticed that most of your answers to people's questions are sarcastic and condescending. For the few of you that actually try to assist people, you're being judged as a whole. Kick the idiots to the curb and find a forum that's run by adults.
Insulting people that are donating their time is likely not the best way to get the help you seek. You cannot control who posts in your thread, so if you don't like something, simply ignore it.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Insulting people that are donating their time is likely not the best way to get the help you seek. You cannot control who posts in your thread, so if you don't like something, simply ignore it.
**A: very well stated. As you know, at times emotion sets in for these posters. Especially in the forums of family and criminal law.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
My husband is on probabion. The Police did a probation search a few months ago, and they destroyed much of my home. There were 10 Officers who tore my home apart for 5 hours. They broke open computers, our dvd players, vcr's, and everything else electronic. I work on computers and I have dozens of spools of CD's. They dumped them all over the house and then walked on them for 5 hours while they were tearing everything up. They opened up my printer, turned it upside down and threw it on my bed. So all of the ink leaked out on my mattress, linen, paperwork, and clothes that they had dumped there as well. They opened up every single package of food from my kitchen cupboards and dumped the contents on the floor. They took every medicine bottle, vitamin, etc. and opened up all of the ones that were capsules and just dumped them all out. Anyway, they found some drug papaphenalia, but no drugs. The Senior Drug Task Force Officer said that whatever was damaged or broken by any of his team would be paid for. Just let him know.
That is the procedure. If you have a claim for damages, you submit it to the appropriate agency. If the claim is rejected, then you take them to civil court (Small Claims, generally).

821.6. A public employee is not liable for injury caused by his
instituting or prosecuting any judicial or administrative proceeding
within the scope of his employment, even if he acts maliciously and
without probable cause.
The individual employee will not be liable, but the city could be. Since the city has rejected your claim, I would recommend you consider consulting an attorney or simply filing the action in small claims court.

And does it matter if anything illegal is found as to whether or not the Police are going to be held accountable for their actions?
If they found contraband as a result of the search, chances are greatly diminished that a court will side with you.


- Carl
 

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